Abstract
The Relativistic Electron Gun for Atomic Exploration (REGAE) is a unique linear accelerator capable of producing ultrashort (∼ 10 fs) electron bunches for studying fast processes in matter by means of ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) experiments. Additionally, REGAE is suitable for upcoming external injection experiments for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). In order to carry out both mentioned experiments, it is crucial to achieve fs level stability in terms of laser-to-RF synchronization. In this paper we present an advanced laser- to-RF synchronization scheme based on integrated Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM). The setup demonstrated the Titanium Sapphire photoinjector laser synchronization with 11 fs (rms) precision in the bandwidth up to 100 kHz. Long term timing drift measurements showed unprecedented peak-to-peak stability of 31 fs (7 fs rms) over 43 hours of measurement time. In addition, AM-PM coefficient of the MZM based laser-to-RF synchronization setup has been evaluated and showed a factor of 10 improved performance compared to conventional direct conversion based laser synchronization setup.
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